Ancient greece

Finally James Delingpole gets why women are so angry

5 September 2015 9:00 am

Finally I realise why women are so pissed off. It all goes back to the first codified laws — circa…

Does Labour need a new name? Let’s ask Plato

8 August 2015 9:00 am

In order to make a sensible choice of new leader, the Labour party is trying to work out what its…

Harry’s Homer — a humorous history

25 July 2015 9:00 am

It was a certain unforgettable ex-girlfriend, Harry Mount confesses — named only as ‘S’ in his dedication — who came…

Alexis Tsipras is just doing what an ancient Athenian would

11 July 2015 9:00 am

The EU finds it difficult to understand what drives the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Quite simply, he is a…

How Solon would have solved the Greek crisis

4 July 2015 9:00 am

The combination of terror and outrage with which Brussels has greeted Greek Prime Minister Tsipras’s referendum tells us everything we…

Why Hesiod would have gone for Grexit

27 June 2015 9:00 am

Why do Greeks want to keep the euro, or remain in the European Union? The combative, creative, competitive, mercantile classical…

What Aristotle would have made of Cambridge’s Lego-sponsored professor

20 June 2015 9:00 am

So Cambridge University has accepted £4 million from the makers of Lego (snort) to fund a Lego chair (Argos sells…

Pliny the Younger on Fifa

6 June 2015 9:00 am

In any huge enterprise (like Fifa), where does the rot begin? Pliny the Younger mused on this question in a…

The northern powerhouses of ancient Turkey

30 May 2015 9:00 am

Government claims that it will ‘free’ northern cities to turn themselves into ‘powerhouses’. Since most of them are held by…

Athenians didn’t need coalition negotiations. We should learn from them

9 May 2015 9:00 am

Whatever the result of the election, it has become clearer by the day that our ‘democracy’ is run by politicians…

The ‘start-up cities’ of Ancient Greece

2 May 2015 9:00 am

Honduras wants to establish start-up cities to experiment with alternative economic, regulatory, and legal systems. Could this concept help stop…

Demosthenes vs Michael Fallon

18 April 2015 9:00 am

Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon’s claim that Ed Miliband, having practised on his brother, would also stab his…

How to vote like Hercules

11 April 2015 9:00 am

To judge from elections, the purpose of politics is to win power by promising to make people better off. Plato,…

Reimaging the lost masterpieces of antiquity

28 March 2015 9:00 am

Martin Gayford visits two new surveys of Greek and Roman sculpture at the British Museum and Palazzo Strozzi. Reimagining what’s lost is as much of an inspiration as what remains

The Green party isn’t nearly tough enough on Ancient Greece

14 March 2015 9:00 am

The Green party’s manifesto appears to make saving the planet only a small element in its otherwise painfully unoriginal agenda.…

Where Alcibiades once walked, amateur tax spies are trying to entrap poor pistachio-sellers

14 March 2015 9:00 am

 Athens I am walking on a wide pedestrian road beneath the Acropolis within 200 meters of the remaining Themistoclean wall…

Cicero’s advice for Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw

7 March 2015 9:00 am

In responding as they did to the Daily Telegraph ‘sting’, Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind may well have done…

Today’s TV debates are pointless – here’s the real thing

28 February 2015 9:00 am

Ancients would have been astonished that parties never debate against each other in open, public forum except on the telly…

Syriza could have learned from Aristophanes. Instead it's headed for Greek tragedy

31 January 2015 9:00 am

The German chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her desire for Greece to remain part of the European ‘story’. Since Greeks…

Socrates, Aristophanes and Charlie Hebdo

24 January 2015 9:00 am

What would the ancients have made of Charlie Hebdo? The First Amendment tolerates the expression of opinions, however offensive, but…

Ched Evans: law vs people power

17 January 2015 9:00 am

‘This was the rule for men that Zeus established: whereas fish, beasts and birds eat each other, since there is…

What MPs need is an oath with consequences

10 January 2015 9:00 am

Before taking their seats in Parliament, all MPs must swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen. Mark Durkan, MP…

How the Romans taught Latin (N.M. Gwynne would not approve)

13 December 2014 9:00 am

Barely a week passes without someone complaining about the teaching of English or foreign languages, usually because it involves too…

Aristotle had David Mellor’s number (Andrew Mitchell’s, too)

6 December 2014 9:00 am

Andrew Mitchell and his ‘effing pleb’ of a policeman, David Mellor and his ‘stupid sweaty little shit of a taxi…

Aristophanes on Mazher Mahmood

22 November 2014 9:00 am

Undercover journalist Mazher Mahmood, otherwise known as the Fake Sheikh, has been accused of dodgy dealing in luring the innocent…